The nation(TM)s old ways of life and thought perished in the mud of Flanders

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Introduction

Introduction I will be investigating whether or not 'The nation's old ways of life and thought perished in the mud of Flanders'. WW1 was a total war which meant that everyone in the country was involved. Not only the soldiers were involved in the war, the people at home were totally geared towards the war effort. Whole industries focused their attentions on producing arms and ammunition to aid the soldiers fighting. Because of this, usual, everyday things were not produced which further focused the attention on the war. In the phrase in question there are some words that need to be clearly defined to make the task easier. Nation refers to Britain, ways of life and thought includes political and economical attitudes and culture and mentality will be included. Perished in the mud of Flanders refers to the way that ways of life or thought temporarily or permanently changed after the war due to the huge losses of men and the shock of being involved in such a huge and horrific event. Overall I think that, as a nation, our political and social values changed massively and that the change was permanent and also our concept of remembrance. However certain events, e.g. women getting the vote, would have happened in the end anyway but the whole process was definitely speeded up by WW1 as women became to establish themselves as responsible and capable members of society while filling in the gaps that the men left when they went away to fight. ...read more.

Middle

Because of this diversity I believe that the lost generation could not have happened to such an extent as suggested by Landsdowne. The rise of the Labour Party; The Labour Part was a relatively new political party that only came into existence in 1900. The Labour Party never really challenged the Democrats or the Conservative parties but after the war they found themselves clearly in the running for government although usually defeated by the conservatives. The Labour party is usually linked with the working class so there was no point in forming before 1900 as there was no vote for the working class people. Still in its very early stages in 1903 the Labour Party agreed an electoral pact with the Liberal Democrats so they could try and keep the Conservatives out of government. This pact enabled Labour to gain a foothold in the English parliament. This ironically left the Liberal Democrats iin a worse position after the war as the were over taken by Labour after giving them their start in the English Parliament. However, just before the war began Labour were still clearly the party lagging behind with only 42 MP's. Interpretation 1; R. McKibbin in the 'Evolution of the Labour Party 1910-24' believed that the Labour party already had the support of the working class at the expense of the Liberal Democrats so the rise of the Labour Party was underway before the war. ...read more.

Conclusion

The ways of life did change massively after the war with women taking a more prominent role in society which would have eventually happened but perhaps not as quickly after showing how they were equal to men on many fronts taking over the factories while the men fought. The large loss of life meant that the nation came to view conflict as a very bad thing as opposed to as a territory and empire building necessity. Politics was changed massively by the war with the Liberal party falling from first to third in the running for government with most of their lost votes going to Labour who moved up to second, this changed the way of life in the nation as a new government was installed and so far the Liberal party have never regained power so it seems that the Liberal party took a turn for the worse during and after the war. The concepts of remembrance changed hugely due to huge numbers of men being killed, more than ever before. The sacrifice these men made the recognised fully by the public and huge memorials and a whole day set aside for remembering the dead. The veterans of both world wars and other wars are fully recognised and recognised for what they did for this country and how they bravely fought for our freedom. Due to all these changes I believe that the nation's old ways of life and thought perished in the mud of Flanders and changed for ever. ...read more.

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